2nd Earth 2: Emplacement (25 page)

He was very sad when his foster parents died, but now neither of them have any ties in the world they came from. Both of them say they have been happier since coming to this world, than they have ever been. I tell you their story so that you can understand how they have been able to be so successful here. They elaborate on how they started pretty much the same way our groups did when they first came to the farms. They were able to get the electricity hooked up and to find a couple of small cities nearby, where they found food as well as people to join their community, but they didn’t know anymore about farming than our groups did when they first started. That didn’t stop them any more than it stopped Jon and the others. They plowed a couple of fields and planted some seeds they found here on the farm.

They were talking to Tim and Frank one night in late spring, and mentioned that they could use some help with planting and raising crops, if they have any advice that may be useful. Two days later the group of our people that we see, pulled into the farm yard to help them get started. They taught them how to figure how many acres are needed to produce enough food to feed however many people, they have showed them the value of having smaller individual gardens to grow smaller amounts of the foods you eat a lot of. In our gardens back in Virginia we always grew some different varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, different kinds of squash, and things like that. They are doing the same thing here. Since our people have come over they have had two older men and their families join, much like Frank and Connie back home. They were farmers before the war and have missed being able to raise their own fruits and vegetables. They didn’t have a spectacular crop, but by planting much more than they needed, they have been able to harvest more than enough so far to feed them all winter and beyond.

They know they have some very large challenges in front of them, but like us they are excited about the possibilities. While we are talking, a small group of six comes walking into the yard. We can see they are embarrassed to ask if this is the place that takes in people who are willing to work for a living. Trent and his wife Patricia run to meet them and welcome them warmly. They make sure they get a good meal and that the children are cared for before they come back to the porch. They continue expounding on the plans they have and the things they want to accomplish for another good half hour. When they have completed their dissertation, I ask the second dumb question of the day. Again this one is even dumb for me, which Emma will be happy to tell you is difficult to do.

I ask them what exactly they need our help to accomplish. Trent, Patricia, David, and Kimberly look totally confused. Rod who is always the diplomat, tells me that maybe we should see if we can raise Tim or Jon on the radio, so he can explain why we are here. I think I have figured it out by the time we manage to get them on the phone. Tim is the one who answers, but he says he just sent Teddy and his shadow to go and get Jon. At first we are not sure what he means then Sara says that Teddy and Nickie must still be seeing each other. Tim tells us that’s an understatement, but yes that’s what he means. Jon takes over the mike and we can hear Teddy tell Tim he will show him about his shadow. Jon starts laughing and we can hear Teddy and his Uncle Tim wrestling around in the background. Jon who is still laughing, tells Teddy to take it easy on Tim, he tells him Tim is too old to be wrestling anyone stronger than Kevin, who is Tim’s son who is just about a year and half old now.

Jon tells us this better be important enough to take him away from reading stories to his favorite young ladies and young men. I tell him I’m afraid that I am the reason he got called away this evening. I apologize and tell him we would like to know what he would like us to help these fine people with. I start to tell him that they are doing a fabulous job, when I hear him laughing at the other end. Now, I am getting just a bit perturbed about his attitude. Just when I am about to give him a piece of my mind, he stops laughing and tells me he is sorry.

“Doc, I owe you an apology. The only reason we wanted you to stop there is so you can see what they have done, and to drive home with the rest of our group. Unless there has been a change in plans, they are planning to leave there tomorrow morning, to come home. Colonel Bob, see what you started by traveling around? You have no idea how much good you and your team have done for people.”

Bob is turning red, he doesn’t like the spotlight. He tells Jon that he knows he was never really a Colonel. He starts to elaborate when Jon interrupts him and tells him he will always be the Colonel to us. I tell everyone that they must be saints to be able to put up with me sometimes. I can never quite see the obvious, and I am always asking foolish questions. Sara, Jenna, and Morgan all give me a hug and tell me that’s part of my charm, and they hope I never change. Jon is always telling me how much he enjoys being part of this family that can kid and joke around with each other. I know exactly what he means, Emma and I have never been as happy as we have been since joining these wonderful people. Jon tells us unless there is a change in plans, they will be expecting us on Friday. He says they have saved all of our chores since we left for us to do when we get back. Gary tells Jon in that case, he will be staying right here. Sara tells Gary that there is no way he is staying here, because she is going to kick his butt on the golf course, even if they haven’t played for a year. Gary laughs and says he guesses he will see Jon on Friday after all.

When the call is completed David and Kimberly ask Sara what she was talking about when she said golf course. We explain all about the golf course we have, and the miniature golf and other games we like to play with the children. Rod says he forgot to tell us about the bowling lanes they set up at the farm after we went to Arizona. We also tell them all about the obstacle courses we built for exercise and for fun. They are writing all this down while we are talking. Trent and Patricia say that they may be calling in the spring to get some advice about getting some of those forms of entertainment for this group. We tell them we will be happy to come back and help them in any way we can. We are all hoping for a long happy relationship with these groups. To all of us they are part of our family even if they are a distance away.

In the morning it is difficult to leave, even though we have only known each other for a short time. We are only on the road for about an hour, when we see a group of twenty walking down the road. When they see our vehicles they try to hide on the side of the road, but we assure them that we mean them no harm. They say they overheard a conversation on the radio about a settlement near here. We have a bus large enough to hold them all, so while the rest of us wait here, Rod and Marla take them back to join our friends.

The trip from there on is uneventful, which is something we all appreciate. The others are bringing us up to speed on what has been going on in the groups. We could probably make it in one day, but it would be very late when we get there, so we decide to stop for the night. It gives us a chance to fill all the vehicles from a station next to the building where we are spending the night. I am so excited to be going home that I have trouble falling asleep, and when I do it seems that I am awake just about every hour. In the morning we get an early start, so that we can be there before noon. Until we went away, Emma and I never realized how much we would miss our home and our family. When we pull into the driveway, my mind races back to that day four years ago when our little group from Erie, Pennsylvania, pulled into this very same driveway and prayed that these kind people would somehow let us stay.

Emma must be thinking the same thing I am, because the tears are flowing down her cheeks as freely as they are mine. She pats my hand and tells me we are home at last. That’s exactly what she said that day when Jon and the rest of our new family showed us the farm they had already started cleaning up. They said that they just knew that Heavenly Father was going to send them some very nice new friends to move in, and love it as much as they do. Just about everyone in the vehicle we are riding in have tears in their eyes as well, when we see the reception that is waiting for us. Jon and his family are waiting next to the area where we park the cars. We never drive them into the yard, unless we are unloading something very heavy. That looks like Teddy standing next to him, but that can’t be. That young man is at least two inches taller than Jon. The twins look like young ladies instead of little girls, and Kathy, Karen, Lisa, and Christy are all teenagers now.

It seems like we have been gone much longer than a year in some ways, and in other ways it seems like we never left. I am getting so emotional from all the hugs and our family telling us how great it is to have us back that I will let Jon visit with you again. I have enjoyed getting to know all of you. I hope you haven’t been too bored listening to the ramblings of an old country doctor. I’m sure we will meet again. Emma and I are looking forward to it. Goodbye for now.

7

              Hello everyone, I’m back. Doctor Don and the rest of our wandering family members are home, so the women are cooking up a huge barbeque for later. We have a couple hundred pounds of ribs, as well as other kinds of meat, like hot dogs, and hamburgers. That’s the first thing Doc asked for is a hotdog. The first thing some of the others said is that now they have other games and sports to kick my butt at. Three guesses who said that and I’m betting you don’t need more than one. You’re right, Sara, Jenna, Morgan, and Lindsay. I asked their husbands how much red meat they have been eating lately, because it seems like they are even more aggressive and competitive than they were when they left. When they first got home they came up and hugged me, telling me how much they missed me, then all four of them punched me in the chest, and told me I better be ready to run the obstacle course against them on Monday.

Naturally Dayna, Robin, Melissa, and Becky have to laugh and encourage them. I have been working out a lot lately, along with our normal chores which never seem to be completed. We had an excellent crop this year, so we have been blessed with the privilege of canning, freezing, and drying, more than any other year since we have lived here. We also have many willing hands to help with the harvest, so it’s really not bad at all. I should bring you up to date on what has been happening around here for the past year. Melissa did not disappoint the twins. She delivered a beautiful baby girl, making all the women in the family happy. We named her Julie after Melissa’s mother. Her personality seems to match some of the other ladies of this family, whom I shall refrain from naming, at least if you take into account the amount of complaining she does. She is almost nine months old and yells at me every time I don’t pick her up the minute I walk into the house.

Between Timmy, Tommy, Kevin, and Julie, I am kept busy playing with children pretty much all evening, every evening. Luckily the other children are getting old enough to help me play with the babies, or there would be a lot more complaining than there is. Becky is expecting anytime now, she says she is sure the baby is a girl, because when she had Jerry she had heartburn constantly, and with this baby she has not had heartburn. I got yelled at and smacked, when I asked her if that could be because she is eating better now, than with the first three pregnancies. Lisa and Christy are on my side, they tell their mom that Jerry still gives them heartburn all the time, and they are not even pregnant. Kathy and Karen tell them that is a byproduct of having a brother. They say Teddy gives them heartburn too. Can’t you feel the love our girls have for their older brothers?

Getting back to what has been happening for the past year beyond our little family. After we set up the miniature golf course, we did the same for the other groups, only we changed the shape of the holes on each course, so that when you played on the course at Ryan and Carol’s group, it was totally different than our course and different than any of the other groups as well. We did make some of the holes like par threes, not because of the distance, but because of the compound turns that we built into some of the holes. Some of the holes are even a challenge to get the ball in the hole in three strokes. Frank, Dad, and some of the other older men in the group found some wooden balls in one of the barns, and decided that they are for a game called Bocce, which they all remembered enjoying when they were young playing it with their families. Naturally when we find something new the children all have to look it up in the books we have, and found out that the game can be played in an open yard or in a boxed in area similar to a horseshoe pit.

We already have horseshoe pits at each group that everyone big enough to toss a horseshoe far enough enjoys playing. Why not build some Bocce pits to play the game in. Most of the younger children just play in the yard. It’s the older children, like Frank and Dad that play it in the boxed in area. So far none of the young children argue about the game, but Dayna, Roberta, and Connie have had to tell Frank and Dad that if they can’t play nice together, they will have to quit playing. Anyway the Bocce reminded some of the older people, as well as Tim and I that we used to go bowling, the older people when they were younger, Tim and I before we came to this world. Naturally there were a couple of bowling centers in town, so we investigated how difficult it would be to move some lanes to each group, so that we can all go bowling again.

The first item on the agenda was to get a building to put the lanes in, so we had to decide how many lanes we wanted in each group. The lanes in the bowling centers in town were pretty good sized, with one of them having thirty-six lanes, and the other having sixty-four lanes. We decided to put ten lanes in each group, but since our group has more people than the other groups, we wound up with fourteen. We poured the concrete slab that the building and the lanes will sit on then built a building to house the lanes. We decided to use some of the prefab homes, with some modifications of course, to make them long enough to house the lanes, and the equipment for setting the pins. The lanes were not too difficult to move and we have not been able to make the automatic setters work properly yet, but we all enjoy bowling together. We take turns setting the pins for each other, and usually bowl as families. With as many lanes as we have, several families can bowl at a time. We are hoping now that Mike and James are back, they will know how to make the pin setters work the way they should.

Other than that things have been pretty boring. We did have to drill a well in Karl’s group, because they have been expanding, and they wanted to put some houses where none were before and they needed water. A challenge like that excited everyone, so as usual we had plenty of help. Frank remembered helping his dad and uncles drill for water on their farm once, so we have an expert. What more do we need? I was not sure how we would go about finding where to drill the well. We found the rig for drilling in town, at of all places a company that had a sign saying, Wells Drilled and Repaired. In the office they had pictures of a guy using what Frank called a divining rod, to find where they should drill the well. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how a forked stick could find water sixty or seventy feet below ground level, but if Frank says it works. Who am I to doubt it?

We went over to where they wanted to build the houses, and Frank made a big show of walking around with the divining rod, until it miraculously pointed straight down at the ground. He had been walking with it parallel to the ground up to that point. We set up the drilling rig that is mounted on the back of a one ton truck, along with all the pipe and drills we should ever need, and started drilling into the ground in that spot. It’s a good thing Ken knows about this stuff from when he was in the Army Corps of Engineers, because even Frank was lost once we started drilling. It took us a day and a half to drill the well, and another half day to run the pipe down the hole and hook up a pump. Oh yeah, Frank was right on, we found water first try. Of course when I found out that there was a geological map of the entire area showing the underground water patterns, I have to admit I am questioning Frank’s ability to use a divining rod.

According to the map it would have been difficult to drill anywhere on that property and not hit water. We were able to move three of the prefab homes into that location, which opened that area up for more people. Karl’s group loves that small section and has been no trouble at all. In fact they helped tremendously the only time we were attacked in the last year. I’m not even sure we can call it being attacked, because there was not even a single shot fired.  Ryan and Carol’s group had some men on motorcycles causing trouble one evening. They called us because they were not sure if they should shoot or not, since the men bothering them didn’t appear to be armed. We were on our way over when some of the men from Karl’s group came up behind the men on motorcycles with guns drawn, and convinced them that they really didn’t want any trouble. The men rode away, but returned the next day and asked if they could possibly join our community. Karl’s group took them in to watch them, which wasn’t really necessary, because they have turned out to be some of the hardest workers we have and with our groups that’s saying something.

Monday morning comes around and I have to race against Sara, Jenna, Morgan, and Lindsay on the obstacle course. I have my strategy all thought out, where I can lose this race a little at a time and not make it look too obvious. Just about everyone in our group and several from the other groups show up to watch the race. Naturally I have to joke around, so I ask everyone if they don’t have work to do somewhere else. The race goes pretty much like I thought it would. I don’t have to work too hard to lose against these girls, they are plenty fast enough. When the race is over, my daughter in law, they’re not married yet, but we are sure they will be, comes up and tells me a full minute off my average time. Sara and the others come over and tell us and everyone in general that they knew I would not win, so that they could feel like they kicked my butt. Then they get all mushy on me and say that I have been putting others ahead of myself ever since they met me.

Sara says she wants a hug so I start to give her a hug, and the little brat grabs me around the neck causing me to be off balance, and she along with the others drag and push me into the stream that runs through the obstacle course. That’s more like it, now I know for sure my little sisters are home. We spend the rest of the day harvesting, and preparing crops for food storage. The days and weeks seem to fly by when we are harvesting, canning, preserving, and drying foods for future use. We were talking the other day about how much work it can be getting all this work done. Cassie who is Dayna’s youngest sister, and has been with us since the very beginning, says that to her no matter how hard we work here, it is still ten times easier than when they lived in the city. All the others that were working together that day agreed whole heartedly, and I had to agree as well.

Our group isn’t getting as many new people as we were last year at this time. There are groups like ours springing up in many different states, and as far as we can tell from listening to the radio and talking with them, they are all doing well. We still get requests from other groups for some of our people to come over and perhaps help them, but usually it only takes a few weeks or maybe a month at the most. Sometimes we can explain what we did or do well enough over the radio, for them to get the job done themselves. We were on our way back from a trip to the factory where they used to make lids, with another full truck, when we heard on the CB that there is another settlement near there. We took a detour to stop and meet them. They have a very nice group that has been living there for about six months now. Many of the people met trying to find our settlement and decided to try it on their own.

They have two young men with the skills it takes to make something like that work, and they are close enough that we can go over periodically if they do find out they can use some help. We left them enough rings and jars to last at least fifty years, to go along with the stores of them that they have already accumulated. Mike still wants to see if he can get the equipment running, and we will probably have time during the winter. We all agree that we probably will not need them, but when we checked the facility closer, we found several hundred thousand lids that have already been plated and all they need is to have the rubber applied to them to be usable. Mike and James are sure they can get the machines to do that running, so why not let them. We have found some great jars that have a glass lid that is fastened to the jar with wire. The glass lid presses down onto a rubber gasket and has a clasp to seal the jar and its contents. We have several thousand of these jars, but could not find the rubber gaskets until we found that manufacturing facility.

We not only found the gaskets but we found the machine, the rolls of rubber, and the process to make them. We will be going back in a couple of weeks to spend a few days and see whether or not Mike, James, and the rest of us can get those antique machines running. We are making some strides toward getting the people in this world closer to where they were when man decided to destroy each other. At least it looks like the worst ones killed each other off, and left those that may have a chance to make this world the place that Heavenly Father wanted it to be in the first place. Only time will tell, and I’m sure that will not be answered in my lifetime, but it feels great to be the small part that we have been privileged to play so far. We still have some apples to be made into apple sauce, and we always like to dry a bunch to eat as snacks, instead of cakes and ice cream all the time.

Becky brought the female baby population in our home to a tie. She gave birth to twin daughters and both lovely ladies and their mommy are doing fine. Sometimes I think that they are competing with Julie to see who can complain the loudest and longest, but they don’t have to complain long before one of their big sisters, or many moms pick them up and fuss over them. Of course their daddy can’t let them think that he doesn’t love them just as much, so I pick them up every chance I get. Nickie makes such a fuss over her new little sisters all the time, and is always telling Teddy she can’t wait until they can have some of their own. Robin was teasing Nickie one day and told her that as much as she talks about having a baby, we may have to separate them until they turn eighteen. Nickie is a lot like her mothers in law, she didn’t even look up when she asked Robin what makes her think it’s not too late already. Poor Teddy just got redder.

I almost forgot to tell you what our precious little ladies names are. Since Becky named Lisa after her mother, she asked if any of us mind if she names them after my moms, Anne and Dianne. How could I mind that she wants to honor both my mother’s by naming the girls after them. I think I may have been treading on thin ice with incurring the wrath of Ma Horton though. One evening when Anne was being particularly loud in letting me know she was not happy, with anything I had been doing on this particular night. I told her she reminded me of her namesake because it seemed like I could never do anything right for Ma either. That night all my parents came to me in a dream, and Ma smacked my behind for saying that, but then she smiled and thanked us for naming our lovely daughter after her. If that’s what it’s going to be like to die then I will have no problems with it at all.